Rock and roll can never die.

Hey hey, my my
Rock and roll can never die
There’s more to the picture
Than meets the eye.
Hey hey, my my.

As Neil
Young halfway into the electric set steps up to the edge of the stage and takes
a long look at his audience he is dressed in a dark suit splattered with paint
spots and carrying his scratched and battered old electric guitar, Old Black.
Young’s gaze over the seated crowd is determined and almost provocative as he
stands there for a long moment like a frozen statue. Then he strikes his guitar
just once, rousing a thunderous roar from the loudspeakers, signaling with his
eyes and motion – “Okay everybody, now I’m gonna play the f#*¤... hell out of
you all, watch out!” He kicks off his classic performance “Hey Hey My My” with
the legendary lines ROCK AND ROLL WILL NEVER DIE and IT’S BETTER TO BURN OUT /
THAN FADE AWAY, while his guitar quite un-gently is beginning to weep and moan,
producing sometimes indescribable sounds resembling a clash between fallen power
lines and exploding jet planes in a thunder storm.

This is
incredible, so grand and breathtaking – and the entire crowd is totally
spellbound by the old rock’n roller. A man a couple of rows in front of me
literally catapults from his seat and several meters into the air the
second he recognizes the tough chords from Young’s guitar as the introduction to
“Hey Hey My My” – and now he is standing in the aisle swaying and bending,
totally shrouded in the phenomenal sounds and rhythms from the stage. Later
during the same set Neil Young and his band give us a similarly majestic “Powderfinger”,
and at the end of the show a long long version of “No Hidden Path” – where
Young’s thundering and searching solo just goes on and on, and it takes maybe
twenty or more concluding rounds from the bass and the drums before the volcano
is brought under control and the last embers from Old Black finally expire.

We have
passed midnight at this time – on an evening which started at 8 pm sharp with a
half hour unexciting country set by Mrs Young, Pegi, followed by Neil Young solo
for well over an hour and in the end the electric set lasting more than ninety
minutes. There were many highlights during the concert – but for someone like
me, who has followed Neil Young since the sixties, the classic songs in
particular were the most awe-inspiring – From Hank To Hendrix, Ambulance Blues,
A Man Needs A Maid, Harvest, Journey Through The Past, Mellow My Mind, Don’t Let
It Bring You Down, Cowgirl In The Sand, Down By The River, Hey Hey, My My,
Powderfinger – and of course the encore with Cinnamon Girl.

I always see
motion pictures when I hear the song “Powderfinger” – thrilling action scenes
resembling a movie like Deliverance many many years ago. The song grips you
immediately and must be played precisely as hard and tough, as sparklingly Crazy
Horse like, as Neil and the band are playing it on this particular evening in
Copenhagen. The song kicks off in the middle of upcoming disaster and chaos:

Look out, Mama,
there’s a white boat comin’ up the river
With a big red beacon, and a flag,
and a man on the rail
I think you’d better call John,
’Cause it don’t look like they’re here

to deliver the mail
And it’s less than a mile away
I hope they didn’t come to stay
It’s got numbers on the side and a gun
And it’s makin’ big waves.

Same thing
with Neil and his band that evening in Copenhagen. There were not there just to
deliver the mail.

The concert took place at the Falconer Salen auditorium in
Copenhagen on February 28 2008.